Material Settings oddities...

[Anonymous]

For some reason, every time I open 'Material Settings', no matter what object I have selected, it will bring up "Brick Face" as the default material to be edited.

Wouldn't it make a whole lot more sense for the selected material to be the one that was currently selected when the menu was opened? When you have to switch around between 10+ different materials it becomes quite frustrating having to manually re-select it every time, especially since there is no preview option and the only way to actually change the material involves closing the material settings menu.

Seems like a bug maybe, or maybe I am doing something wrong?

[Barry Kelly]

10+
Try 100+

It will default to the main material for which ever tool you currently have selected when you open the editor.
So alt click (eye dropper) the element whose material you want to edit before you open the material editor.

Barry.

[Anonymous]

Use the Eyedrop tool (alt-click) to select the material you want to alter first. The editor should then open with this material by default (until you alt-click a different material to change the default).

I got this tip from the professional rendering with lightworks DVD (by Mehdi Blanchard). Slightly out of date by now: but I learnt a lot I would have never figured out on my own...

[edit - looks like Barry beat me to the punch]

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much guys, I was always selecting them manually so never thought eye dropper would make any difference. Well, it does.

Thats 10 stress points off my day already!

[Fran_ois Chatelain]

Needless to add that the eyedropper tip will work for pens, fills, line types, composite structures...

Cheers
Francois

[Anonymous]

Eye dropper works to a point - if you have a wall with different materials on the inside, outside and edges you don't always get the one you want in the materials editor. I think it selects the material last assigned.

[Fran_ois Chatelain]

Hi S2art,
here's the logic;-)
- for walls, material on the reference line's side
- for slabs, material of the underside
- for roofs and meshes, material of the upperside
- for objects, material set in the "model" tab of the settings

It nearly makes sense, bar for the slab...

Cheers
Francois

[Anonymous]

Hi Francois

Thanks for the explanation. You're right - it nearly makes sense. Slab, you'd think top surface was more important. With beams (6 materials available) it seems the top of the list takes priority.

Cheers

[Fran_ois Chatelain]

Oops... forgot the beams
That's the one tool I never use since it was introduced in AC. I guess I was already too used to workarounds before that;-)

Cheers
Francois